Cheese of the week: Pyrenees Caprinelle

Name: Pyrenees Caprinelle

Brand: none listed

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Organic Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: France

Price in Iowa: $21.67/pound

Milk: pasteurized Caprinelle goat's milk

Processing: mountain-cooked cheese made with a single milking from spring or autumn milk

Texture: semi-soft

Color: Bone white

Rind: Natural (basket-weave, woody, brown)

Aroma: medium dairy

Taste: cream, nutty, mild goat

Mouth feel: a yielding, rich, but a contiguous paste
 
Notes: This particular Pyrenees Caprinelle was listed as "young and semi-soft," so I knew that it was not going to be the standard for the variety.  These artisan, mountain cheeses are made from spring or autumn goat milkings and aged for 3 to 6 months.  The spring milk cheeses are supposed to have more grassy and floral notes.  This cheese, while quite creamy and buttery, was very mild; especially for a goat cheese.  When I left the cheese on my palate for a bit, I did detect some caramel and stronger nutty/umami flavors, but these were far in the background.  This mild cheese would be delightful when paired with grapes, tart apples or white wine.

Cheese of the week: Brick Cheese

Name: Brick Cheese

Brand: none listed

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Organic Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: Wisconsin

Price in Iowa: $11.67/pound

Milk: pasteurized cow

Processing: Simple cheddar processing with higher heat

Texture: semi-soft

Color: cream

Rind: Natural

Aroma: mild dairy

Taste: Creamy, buttery, mild cheddar finish

Mouth feel: Soft, silky, almost fudge-y
 
Notes:  There are plenty of fancy cheeses out there.  Then there is brick cheese.  This "sandwich" cheese is a simple cheddar created at a slightly higher heat to encourage higher fat content.  The cheese is pressed with clay bricks (hence, the name) and a Limberger culture is used to surface ripen the cheese block.  It's washed with whey and turned for a few days before packaging.  This cheese will continue aging in the package, starting off as a soft, very mild cheddar; then increasing in piquant and sharp flavors as the cheese matures.  However, most applications employ the young cheese.


I just ate this cheese as is, right out of the packaging.  It was sweet, buttery and silky.  My next application was a grilled cheese sandwich.  Like raclette, this cheese was almost designed for melting.  However, the young cheese doesn't provide much flavor.  It offers a creamy mouth feel, but I found myself reaching for some mustard after a few bites.  I'm going to try to find an older brick, but as a straight snacking cheese this is one of the best I've tried.

Cheese of the week: Sage Derby

Name: Sage Derby

Brand: none listed

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Organic Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: UK

Price in Iowa: $13.57/pound

Milk: cow

Processing:

Texture: semi-firm

Color: pale yellow with green veining

Rind: Natural

Aroma:  mild dairy with herbal notes

Taste: luscious and complex herbal bouquet

Mouth feel: a nice semi-firm, chewy pate
 
Notes: I've had the Port Derby before, and that was nice with sweet and tart notes.  The Sage Derby immediately reminded me of the flavors from a nice roasted chicken or quail.  There were the quiet, meaty notes of the derby, but the sage blossomed in my mouth and just exploded with memories of herb-roasted bird.  I'm not sure what to pair this with.  I've seen recipes that use it with turkey or chicken sandwiches.

So, that's what I'll be having for lunch tomorrow...

Cheese of the week: Smokey Blue

Name: Smokey Blue

Brand: Rogue Creamery 

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Organic Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: Oregon

Price in Iowa: $21.67/pound

Milk: organic raw cow

Processing: Typical bleu processing, coupled to a 16-hour smoke over hazelnut shells.

Texture: semi-firm

Color: pale yellow with bleu veining

Rind: Natural

Aroma: Nutty, bleu, vanilla

Taste: Smokey, strong bleu, umami, nutty, beefy, sweet

Mouth feel: Smooth and silky
 
Notes:  There is a lot going on with this cheese.  I love bleu cheese.  The stinkier and stronger, the better.  But this bleu is something else.  I've had a few unusual blues (blue jacks and blue goudas and cheddar blues).   This is a transformed blue.  The smoking adds so many complicated flavors that every mouthful is different.  Try it.  You'll like it.

Cheese of the week: Barely Buzzed Espresso-Lavender Rubbed Cheddar

Name: Barely Buzzed Cheddar

Brand: Beehive Cheese Company

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Organic Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin:  Utah

Price in Iowa: $19.78/pound

Milk: cow

Processing:  a nice cheddar rubbed with espresso and lavender in oil and salt

Texture: semi-firm

Color: straw yellow

Rind: Washed and natural

Aroma: mild dairy

Taste: mild dairy, tingly coffee notes, umami and floral notes deep in the background

Mouth feel: firm and chewy
 
Notes:  This is a very good example of what a clever cheesemaker can do to create a unique, artisan cheese.  I've had Beehive Cheese's Seahive Cheese, rubbed with honey and sea salt.  I actually avoided the Barely Buzzed last time I saw it because I didn't think I would like the taste.  So, here we are, about two months later, and I'm eating coffee-flavored cheese.

And it is delightful.

The coffee note are right there, in the foreground.  The cheese itself has the flavor and mouth-feel of a very young gouda, which has a sweet and nutty background flavor.  But the coffee notes blend with the gouda background to create a symphony of tastes.  I think that a nice cup of espresso or a dark chocolate would pair well with this cheese, but be careful of serving it with competing flavors.  Find something to accentuate the flavors already present in this amazing cheese.

Barely Buzzed White Cheddar Cheese - 6 oz 

Cheese of the week: Shankleesh

Name: Shankleesh

Brand: Ziyad

Place of Purchase: Pammel Grocery in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: Lebanon (via Cicero, IL)

Price in Iowa: $2.59/pound

Milk: cow

Processing: skimmed cow milk yogurt (Laban) is mixed with acid, strained, rolled into balls, dried and allowed to age.   The balls are coated in thyme and pepper and stored in olive oil.

Texture: Semi-soft

Color: Green with red specks, pale white on the inside.

Rind: Natural coated with Thyme, pepper and salt.

Aroma: Very mild dairy

Taste: Tart, salty, tart.

Mouth feel: Crumbly and moist pate.
 
Notes: Shankleesh is typically served with a Middle Eastern breakfast called a meze.  This SOUR cheese is mixed with tomatoes and cucumbers, probably to cut the salty and sour taste.  I think that this cheese would work great in a salad, maybe in a pita with a LOT of veggies.  It might even go well mixed with eggs.  But I just popped one in my mouth and between the acid and the salt, I drank about 2-liters of water.

It's yummy.  It's strong.  Be careful.

Cheese of the week: Chaubier

Name: Chaubier Cheese

Brand: none listed

Place of Purchase: Wheatsfield Organic Co-op in Ames, Iowa

Country/Region of Origin: France

Price in Iowa: $13.57/pound

Milk: cow and goat

Processing: cooked, pressed and the rind is washed.

Texture: semi-firm

Color: straw yellow

Rind: Washed and natural

Aroma: strong dairy, woody, nutty, spiky (goaty)

Taste: warm umami, nutty, sharp dairy, piquant (goaty)

Mouth feel: Firm then yielding, rich, creamy
 
Notes:  This two-milk cheese is renowned for its strong, persistent, goat cheese flavor.  I've had several varieties of goat cheese over the past year, and the spiky piquant tang in this cheese is pretty intense.  In the foreground you have the nice, cozy nutty flavors of a good, aged cheese.  But then there is this BAM of something, which I assume is goat kick.  It's a good cheese, and supposedly great on sandwiches and melted over sausages.